What Do Kids Think About Plastic Surgery?

Whenever we write about kids undergoing cosmetic surgery, it generates a lot of discussion amongst adults. But how do kids feel about it? That’s exactly what journalist Linda Ellerbee sought to find out when she hosted the Nick News special “Minor Adjustments: Kids and Cosmetic Surgery.”

Over the years, Ellerbee has dared to address a variety of weighty issues with kids, with subject matter ranging from global warning to HIV. With plastic surgery attracting increasingly younger patients, it makes sense to involve kids in the discussion on beauty ideals rather than pretending they aren’t subject to the same peer and media pressures that adults are.

The program profiled a handful of kids who turned to cosmetic surgery for a variety of reasons. For one girl, her motivation was aesthetic, choosing to have a nose job (as did her mother and grandmother before her) to gain confidence. Another teen boy had breast reduction surgery to counteract a hormonal imbalance that gave him an embarrassingly large chest.

And then things get extra complicated with a girl who at 12 had liposuction to slim down her 225 pound body, and at 15 received breast implants to look more like Barbie.

If you’re looking for any firm conclusions, however, look elsewhere. While kids interject their opinions on plastic surgery between the segments, Ellerbee points out that “saying who’s right and who’s wrong is tricky,” instead deciding that the topic is one where there’s “more than one right answer.”